When it comes to choosing which sauce to smother those noodles or zoodles in, the options are quite limitless. However, when you eliminate sugar from the ingredient list, those options slim down REAL fast. Have you ever turned over the label of your favorite pasta sauce to check out the ingredients? If not, chances are, you’re adding an unnecessary amount of sugar to your meal. Pasta sauce does NOT need sugar to taste good. Let’s say that one more time. Pasta sauce does NOT need sugar to taste good! Got it? Good!

Did you know that according to the American Heart Association, the maximum amount of sugar a female should have for the day is 25 grams? And 37.5 grams for men (how rude!) So why use up those precious sugars in spaghetti sauce? Plus, if you’re in the middle of a round of Whole30, finding a pasta sauce that doesn’t have sugar listed in the ingredients list is a hard feet to tackle.

And just to be clear, when you read the nutrition facts, its ok to see sugar in the Nutrition Facts. So long as the word sugar does not appear in the ingredients list. There’s a big difference here. Sugar in the nutrition facts but not in the ingredient list simply means that the tomatoes and vegetables used to make that sauce naturally contain sugar. And naturally occurring sugars are fine. The body does much better at using those sugars and breaking them down than lets say, fructose, sucrose or even table sugar.

So what should you buy? I’ve selected 3 of my favorite Marinara and Spaghetti sauce options that are easy to find and very affordable. (I’ve seen sugar-free options at Albertsons for $9.99 and about had a heart attack!) None of that crap here!

So here they are, in order of my MOST favorite, down to my, well, favorite! I love them all, but just for different reasons. I’ll share with you the name followed by the ingredients list so you can see for yourself what a clean option looks like…

So why is TRADER JOE’S Roasted Garlic Spaghetti Sauce my MOST favorite? I absolutely adore the robust flavors of the garlic in this sauce. Topped over some freshly spiraled noodles, it’s an explosion of flavor in your mouth. I also love layering this with my eggplant lasagna. The flavor is probably one of the best I’ve ever found. So throw out that Prego and Ragu that’s sitting on your shelf and add this one to the pantry.

I love this one for so many reasons. First being, it’s DELICIOUS! I had it again yesterday on my spaghetti zoodles and I was once again reminded of how much I love this stuff! The second reason is the fact that it’s 100% organic. Love that! And third, it’s at Costco which makes life a whole lot easier, and it’s totally affordable. I’ve been really impressed with a lot of the Kirkland Brand items at Costco as far as sticking to a PALEO diet like their Albacore tuna, Organic Chicken Stock and more… Maybe I’ll do another blog post all about it.

This one was a recommendation from a friend and I have loved it. I will say it is a little more runny than the other two I have reviewed, but still those amazing delicious flavors and the simplest of ingredients. I feel like my 2-year-old could pronounce everything in it, which is exactly the way it should be! Plus, all the ingredients are imported from Italy so that makes them that much better, right? It’s so good over a Spaghetti Squash boat, you’ll die! Oh, the flavors!

So what do you think? Which one do you want to try? Or have you tried one already and have an opinion you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you in comments, so please, comment away!